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Amid the rubble,
bomb shards of a broken life,
wreckage of a hate gone mad,
fire of a rejecting world,
still You walk, Lord,
seeking the lost,
comforting the injured,
helping the afflicted,
looking over the twisted hate
that uses you,
that rejects you,
makes you the scapegoat of so many things.

At a casual glance,
not much has changed since you walked the earth,
Cain still chooses to kill his brother,
Eve still reaches for the forbidden,
we build new towers of Babel daily.
And yet, the sparks you planted build into flickering flames,
lighting up the darkness.

Help us be those lights, Lord,
the lamps of Heaven's light piercing the darkness of sin,
the oil of peace in the land of hate,
the hand that pushes aside the rubble,
reaches out,
lifts up our brother, shaken to his core,
and helps him into the day.

We are but dust without your spirit.
Breathe in us, that we might live,
and living,
bring that life to others,
this day, and always,
Amen.

Abbe Zeno said, 'If a man wants God to hear his prayer quickly, then before he prays for anything else, even his own soul, when he stands and stretches out his hands towards God, he must pray with all his heart for his enemies. Through this action God will hear everything that he asks.'

Just as it is easy to love people who are far away and not real to us, it is very easy to pray for those enemies who are also not the enemies who taunt us day after day or cause us real grief and pain. The enemies in our daily life: relatives, co-workers, bosses, people who irritate us, people who have hurt us, these are the ones we truly need to pray for and forgive, and it is the hardest thing of all, perhaps, but essential to our growth.

If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5: 23-24 RSV

Holding these fires in our heart blocks our connect to God in serious ways. We are told in the Lord's prayer: Forgive us of our debts as we forgive our debtors. If we harbor an active hate towards our brother, we cannot be forgiven.

But hate, like love, is a decision we can override or choose. If we combat that darkness in our own hearts with acts of love, by choosing to pray, by choosing to act in a loving way, we can be reconciled, forgive, act with love. It is in the action more than the feeling this takes place.

St. Therese of Lisieux said: "True love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes." She also says:

True Charity consists in bearing with all the defects of our neighbor, in not being surprised at his failings, and in being edified by his least virtues; Charity must not remain shut up in the depths of the heart, for no man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. (Cf. Matthew 5:15). It seems to me that this candle represents the Charity which ought to enlighten and make joyful, not only those who are dearest to me, but all who are in the house.

St. Therese of Lisieux - Story of A Soul, Chapter IX

Jesus also tells us to be merciful the way his Father is merciful to the selfish and ungrateful. A hard thing to do, but worth so much in the long run. Don't expect to be highly sucessful at doing this at once, and don't expect that your enemy will approve necessarily of the prayers and love you are ready to offer. But if we do it for Jesus, through Jesus' power, because he asks us to, we cannot help but to make a difference